National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, operator of the country’s electricity superhighway, aims to bring down the cost of ancillary services by as much as 40 percent.

In a statement, NGCP said the rates in the ancillary services procurement agreements (ASPA) it filed in the Energy Regulatory Commission were “significantly lower” than those in the current agreements.

“The new contracting methodology, rates and payment structure to be applied on all prospective ASPAs were designed to lower the overall cost of ancillary services by as much as 40 percent and, at the same time, ensure the availability of ancillary services capacity for the reliability and security of the grid,” NGCP said.

These agreements include those entered into with Trans-Asia Power Generation Corp. (TA-Power), Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. (Trans-Asia) and Panasia Energy Inc. (PanAsia).

NGCP said it was tasked to provide ancillary services to all transmission users of the main grids by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira), its Implementing Rules and Regulations, the Philippine Grid Code (PGC) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rules. NGCP is also mandated to implement the ERC-promulgated Ancillary Service Procurement Plan (ASPP) and the Ancillary Services Cost Recovery Mechanism (AS-CRM).

Ancillary services referred to “services that are necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system in accordance with good utility practice and the Grid Code.”

Ancillary services are needed to ensure reliability in the operation of the transmission system and, consequently, in the reliability of the electricity supply in the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao grids.

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http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AYITA5V33GYZSLC3G37UCVNTKA Ben

While thinking of ways to lower the electric rates to help the economy. The government should link up the electric grid of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao via submarine cables to distribute the needed surplus electricity in one given main island to where it is needed in the other areas of the Philippines for example in Mindanao which is suffering now. The government should continue to increase the share of renewable energy resources such as wind, tidal to reduce our carbon footprints in which we will be one of the at risk nations if the greenhouse gases increases the temperature of ocean waters…expanding it and increasing the frequency and intensity of all tropical depressions which we must regard seriously just like any natural disaster.